Sykes-Picot: and the Middle-East

In November 1915, diplomats François Georges-Picot (for France) and Mark Sykes (for Britain) negotiated an ‘understanding’ about how to divide the Middle East into spheres of influence for their respective countries. At the time, the area was still under control of the Ottoman Empire, linked to the Central Powers (Germany and Austro-Hungary) and therefore an opponent of the British, French and other Allies in World War I.

The Sykes-Picot Plan was secretly agreed to by the British and French governments on May 16, 1916. The outlines of the combined zones of influence have partially determined the borders of Syria, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia as they still stand today. Internally, the zones do not correspond to the present border situation.
According to Sykes-Picot, there were to be:
An ‘A’-zone of French influence, somewhat corresponding with present-day Syria but without coastal access, and extending far into present-day Iraq, to include the city of Mosul.
A ‘B’-zone of British influence, roughly correspondent to present-day Jordan and Iraq and including the Israeli port city of Haifa. Also included were the southern part of present-day Israel (i.e. the Negev desert), and a band of territory extending deep into the Arabian peninsula.
A ‘Blue’ zone of direct French control, in central Anatolia with extensions towards the south (the Syrian coast) the west (the southern Turkish coast) and far inland.
A ‘Red’ zone of direct British control, in southern Iraq and extending southwards over Kuwait to include the Persian Gulf coast of Arabia.
An international zone in the Holy Land, pending consultation with other world powers.
France and Britain would be left free to decide on state boundaries within the areas of their control. The main criticism of the Sykes-Picot Agreement was that it failed to take into account the wishes of the Arab populations in the area – who had been promised self-determination by some Western interlocutors, such as Lawrence of Arabia, who promised the Arabs a homeland in exchange for siding with the British against the Turks.
Sykes-Picot was reaffirmed at the Sanremo Conference (1920), although the borders of the resultant states (the French mandate area of Syria-Lebanon, the British mandate areas of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq) did not correspond exactly to the zones of influence in the original agreement.( via strangemaps )

A man or an ape?

His paintings were first shown in London in 1957 as abstract lyrical or abstract expressionist works. Picasso and Miro were said to have bought his canvases, and an American collector of contemporary art bought three paintings at an auction in 2005 for $26,352. The artist's name was Congo - a chimpanzee.
This is not merely an anecdote; art does not belong exclusively to human beings, but to other animals as well. This is the main thesis of a new book by Ben Ami Sharfstein, Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University and recipient of the 2005 Israel Prize for Philosophy.
Sharfstein says that while the ape is interested in the process rather than the end product, man is interested in both the process and its result. Second, both man and ape arrange their paintings in similar fashions. The ape's art reveals balance, rhythm and thematic patterns. There is no way of distinguishing between a picture painted by a man or an ape. Sharfstein knows that these responses could also be used to bash contemporary art, "but I prefer to see them as indications of the interesting closeness between art and its pre-human sources," he says. . ( more from HAARETZ via Cliff)

Man kann gar nicht genug vögeln

Fritz Perls, from In and Out the Garbage Pail:
Quoting a "distinguished, patriarchal" Austrian psychoanalyst, Paul Federn, in the 1920s: "You just can't fuck enough" ("Man kann gar nicht genug vögeln").
Another analyst, asked by Perls what he thought of the various Freudian schools, replied: "They all make money."
Friend, don't be a perfectionist. Perfectionism is a curse and a strain. For you tremble lest you miss the bull's-eye. You are perfect if you let be.
Friend, don't be afraid of mistakes. Mistakes are not sins. Mistakes are ways of doing something different, perhaps creatively new.
Friend, don't be sorry for your mistakes. Be proud of them. You had the courage to give something of yourself.
It takes years to be centered; it takes more years to understand and be now. Until then, beware of both extremes, perfectionism as well as instant cure, instant joy, instant sensory awareness.
I am holding on to my credo: "I am responsible only for myself. You are responsible for yourself. I resent your demands on me, as I resent any intrusion into my way of being."
I think the pursuit of happiness is a fallacy. You cannot achieve happiness. Happiness happens and is a transitory stage. . . . It is impossible by the very nature of awareness to be continuously happy.(for perls in ein hod)

Lebanon War-25 years...

"Habayta" (= Back Home).
The song "habayta" was written by the late Ehud Manor on 1982 during the the first Lebanon war. The song called to bring the israeli soldiers back home from "foreign fields".
On 2003 Manor was asked by Yardena to add a new verse to the song.
Last summer, during the second Lebanon war, Yardena had recorded the new version of the song and dedicated it to the kidnapped and missing israeli soldiers

Six-Day War

Now in the public domain, this newsreel footage from 1967 covers the cease fire, UN debates, and the reunification of Jerusalem.

A few months after the 1967 war, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a professor at Hebrew University and a leading Israeli intellectual--who was also an observant Jew--stated that Israel must immediately withdraw from the occupied territories. He argued that the occupation was unjust and would inevitably lead to the oppression and subjugation of the Palestinians, and to the corruption if not destruction of Israeli society.

The Japanese toddler

An event that saw the organisation proudly showing off a 33-kilogramme effigy that can make facial expressions, react to its surroundings by blinking and stand up with assistance. Giving it a set of skills and abilities that its maker claims allows CB2 (Child-Robot with Biometric Body) to emulate the physical abilities of a 1- or 2-year-old toddler.
The Japanese latest robot which is nearer to human being.
The robot has intelligence of a baby(age:1-2) and the senses of sight, hearing, touch.The scientists group plan to develop the robot to an intellectual level of 3 years old child four years later.

McCLURE, DYLAN, AND GINSBERG

This session was arranged the night before at a party after Bob Dylan's concert at the Berkeley Community Theater. Allen Ginsberg introduced me to Dylan and we arranged to do a photo session (for the Blonde on Blonde album) the same day as the Beat's last gathering at City Lights Books. At City Lights we hid out in the basement with Dylan and when the people started to break the door down we climbed out a window and ran down the alley and took this photograph. I was in college and living at home during the Beat period. I had to mow the lawn before I could borrow the car and go to San Francisco to shoot this photo and the City Lights Books last gathering of the Beats event.( by larry keenan from emptymirrorbooks )

Cheese

the different kinds of cheese mentioned in Monty Python’s “Cheese Shop” sketch of November 30th 1972 (3rd season), starring John Cleese and Michael Palin. Writers were John Cleese and Graham Chapman.
Though quite well known, the rarest French cheese is said by many to be Ossau-Iraty, an unpasteurized ewe’s milk semi-soft made by Basques. Bleu de Termignon is also prestigious and very rare, said to come exclusively from eight or ten Alpine cows of the mahogany Tarentais breed owned by a woman in her nineties. In Northumberland, New Chevington cheese has been recently resurrected from its 19th century extinction. Liederkranz is extinct (though Schlosskranz Herz is a close approximation) and Single Gloucester nearly so. Most people assume Limburger, last on the list, is the most evil smelling; but actually beer-washed Vieux Boulogne from Normandy usually earns that distinction. Personally I’m waiting for cows to be genetically modified to produce milk of other mammals. Anteater, dormouse, or killer whale cheese might be just the thing.

Red Leicester
Tilsit
Caerphilly
Bel Paese
Red Windsor
Stilton
Emmenthal
Gruyère
Norwegian Jarlsburg
Liptauer
Lancashire
White Stilton
Danish Blue
Double Gloucester
Cheshire
Dorset Blue Vinney (though said to be nearly extinct)
Brie
Roquefort
Pont l’Évêque
Port Salut
Savoyard
Saint-Paulin
Carré de l’Est
Bresse Bleu
Boursin
Camembert
Gouda
Edam
Caithness
Smoked Austrian
Japanese Sage Derby* (though Sage Derby exists)
Wensleydale
Greek Feta
Gorgonzola
Parmesan
Mozzarella
Pipo Crème
Danish Fynbo
Czech sheep’s milk (Abertam)
Venezuelan Beaver Cheese* (no beavers native to Venezuela!)
Cheddar
Ilchester
Limburger